Despite XP's end of support, Microsoft is still going to release the fix for the recent Internet Explorer vulnerability for the ageing operating system.

Even though Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft and is past the time we normally provide security updates, we've decided to provide an update for all versions of Windows XP (including embedded), today. We made this exception based on the proximity to the end of support for Windows XP. The reality is there have been a very small number of attacks based on this particular vulnerability and concerns were, frankly, overblown. Unfortunately this is a sign of the times and this is not to say we don’t take these reports seriously. We absolutely do.

If you're still on Windows XP, you deserve to be insecure. Get a modern operating system - Windows 7/8, OS X, Linux, anything. XP is outdated crap, and it's time to move on.

If you are sure there are many stories like this, why do you doubt the authenticity?

Maybe you bought a $100K oscilloscope back in 2008 with Windows XP. Now you need to pay $30K to have it upgraded to Windows 7 to keep having it connected to your corporate network, be able to print and share scope shots and control it remotely.

The real issue is not replacing your ageing PC with a new one. The real issue is how to uphold security of the Internet of Things where software is not easily upgradable. Just imagine how many devices, routers, mobile phones, media boxes, toasters etc. which are still affected by the Heartbleed bug!

There are countless cases of this in industry, especially in scientific industries like pharmaceutical and medical. I work in medical devices, and some of the equipment I have to maintain still runs DOS. There's no possible way to move on from that because they either have custom, built-in PCs with dual 386 CPUs (I'm not joking), or need some sort of custom ISA card to run their hardware, or simply use software that directly accesses the hardware, effectively ruling out any OS with an NT kernel.

Pharmaceutical equipment, by the nature of the tightly regulated world it lives in, has a very long development cycle, sometimes over 20 years. You just have to accept that and keep a stock of things like DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1 install disks lying around, along with old hard drives and spare instruments, because sometimes there is no other way. Some of our newest instruments still on sale use XP embedded, and probably will do for years to come.